Colombo Shore Excursion: City Sightseeing Tour

Really good trip. Met straight off the ship and then driven out of the port to meet our driver for the day, Rangit. Really nice guide who was happy to take us to all the places we wanted to see and didn't put any pressure on us to visit the shops that were on his schedule. Dropped back off outside the port but were able to get a shuttle bus back to the ship. The trip included a visit to a Buddhist Temple/Museum which was absolutely breathtaking.

The meet and greet part of this tour was awful. It was supposed that the pick up point would from inside the port as mentioned in the tour details, and I have paid additional money for that since there was another cheaper tour but pick up point from outside the port entrance. Since there was nobody waiting for us inside the port, we called the contact phone number provided, and the tour operator told us that we have to go outside the port, to the main entrance to catch the tour!!! So we walked to the main entrance quite a long walk 15 min crossing in our way some dead rats and crows eating them and street dogs roaming everywhere!! Disgusting!! After reaching the main entrance, the toyr driver was not there waiting for us!! We called the contact number again and they told us we had to wait for another 15 min!! So we had to wait between infront of the main entrance with tens of taxis hasseling us to go with in an unfriendly environment!! Same happened with another couple who purchased the same tour at the same time. Finally our car driver arrived, named Arosh. He was the driver and the guide at the same time. He was not fluent in english, and he didn't have much touristic info to give us. He said that the tour time is only 3-4 hours. But after we showed him that the tour is from 8 to 2pm he said ok. He tried to make us skip the entry of the Magamaraya temple saying that my wife is wearing inappropriate cloths for the temple to save his time of course, but we insisted to go and it appeared that the temple provides body covering to allow us to go in, so we did! Beautiful temple. The car was ok, a new small Honda with AC. At the end of the tour, the driver refused to go inside the port saying he is not allowed to go in to save the entrance fee of course, althou we had paid for that service!, so he dropped us infront of the main entrance of the port and we had to walk again that terrible distance back to our cruise ship. I would not recommend this tour. For a little more money just 15 more /pers you will get a respectable excursion tour excursion from ur cruise ship!!

Wir (53, weiblich und 82, weiblich, mit Krücken unterwegs) wurden pünktlich im Hafen (nur wenige Meter vom Schiff entfernt) von Colombo abgeholt. Das Fahrzeug war neuwertig, geräumig, sauber und hatte Klimaanlage. Unser Fahrer (Asela Sri) war sehr freundlich und aufmerksam, und legte unsere Tour so, dass wir zeitlich versetzt zu den Ausflügen des Kreuzfahrtschiffs bei den Sehenswürdigkeiten ankamen, und dort so gut wie alleine waren. Das hat uns sehr gefallen. Unser Fahrer hat sich unseren Wünschen voll angepasst, und auch mal einen Sonderstop zum Fotografieren eingelegt. Seine Kompetenz als Guide war excellent. Wir hatten einen tollen Tag.